Ellis Island Tea – Jamaican Sweet Tea Hits Sam’s Club Shelves

DETROIT, Michigan — Detroit based Jamaican Sweet Tea company Ellis Island Tea announced that it has inked a deal with in Sam’s Club starting this May, for the recipe to be sold in all of the nearly 600 Sam’s Club locations across the nation.

“We’re heading into summer so the timing couldn’t be better,” Ellis-Brown said in a interview with the Michigan Chronicle. “Ellis Island Tea is the perfect party beverage for summer celebrations, backyard barbecues or holiday festivities. It is an antioxidant rich, beautiful red tea with a smooth, exotic flavor. It offers iced tea lovers a fresh, innovative beverage made from all-natural ingredients.”

Last fall, Ellis-Brown’s bottled Jamaican Sweet Tea – known as Ellis Island Tea created by Nailah Ellis-Brown – hit the shelves in Sam’s Clubs in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Response to the Sam’s Club exclusive 64-ounce bottles of her hibiscus-based tea was so good that Ed Romero, Sam’s Club Sr. Vice President General Merchandise Manager of Fresh, decided to give Ellis-Brown a shot at the rest of the Sam’s Club locations.

“Bringing high quality, unique items that are exclusive to Sam’s Club is what we’re all about,” said Romero. “We think our members are going to love this item. And we’re proud that Nailah even uses our Member’s Mark All-American Fancy Clover White Honey as one of her ingredients.”

Ellis-Brown is the only African American female beverage maker in the United States with her own manufacturing plant. The recipe was handed down from her great-grandfather for Jamaican Sweet Tea.

“There is a lot of history in the recipe for this tea,” Ellis-Brown said. “It was handed down to me from my Great-Grandfather Cyril Byron, who was a Jamaican immigrant. He knew his recipe had value. He passed it down through the generations with the caveat that it was to be ‘sold, not told’ – meaning take the tea to market. I am honoring his legacy every single day with every bottle of Ellis Island Tea I brew and sell.”